


i try to work up the courage (to kiss the bottom half of her face)

by Pinkiepie502



Category: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Angst with a Happy Ending, Crack, Don't Read This, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Getting Together, Getting to Know Each Other, It's awful, Lesbians!, appledash - Freeform, au where the sonic movie came out in october, but lowkey, enemies is a strong word, fake angst tho don't take this seriously at all, laundry room au, merry christmas kat and claire, please bear with me, rainbow dash is a gay disaster, several mentions of megamind, thank you kat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:14:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24358645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pinkiepie502/pseuds/Pinkiepie502
Summary: It's nearing two AM, and Rainbow Dash is doing her fucking laundry.Or, how Dash and AJ discover that they can bring out the worst (and sometimes the best) in one another.
Relationships: Applejack/Rainbow Dash (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 78





	i try to work up the courage (to kiss the bottom half of her face)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cypress_Dream](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cypress_Dream/gifts).



Picture this: it’s nearing two AM. You’re absolutely exhausted. You have an incredibly important test tomorrow and you’ve accepted the sad reality that, yes, you _will_ fail, as you couldn’t study because your track coach made you stay an extra two hours after your already four hour practice. Your ADHD meds have worn off so now you are finally able to feel tired like a normal human person.  
But you’re doing laundry.

Rainbow Dash did not have to imagine this hell at all. She was living it. 

Dash was pretty sure that she had never been this tired or stressed in her life and therefore doing laundry at that exact moment was not exactly ideal, but she had absolutely _no_ clothes left to wear. When she explained her situation to her roommate (who was also awake at one-thirty in the morning, but was not studying or doing laundry; rather, she was wrapped in a cocoon of fluffy comforters marathoning _It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia_ despite the fact that she had an eight AM class the following morning), the other girl had kindly offered her some of her own clothes for the next day, but Dash wasn’t too keen on wearing bright neon pink and blue-patterned chunky sweaters with similarly colored joggers adorned with yellow zigzag stripes. So, Dash fought through her exhaustion and pushed open the door to the laundry room.

The fluorescent lights blinded her so much she squinted instinctively. She dragged her feet over to the seven washing machines and set her sack of laundry down before she noticed the problem: every single _fucking_ machine was being used. Every one. And they all had six minutes left, so Dash surmised that it was one person who was using every machine.. Rainbow Dash couldn’t take it.

“Fucking ridiculous!” she said to herself. She was so tired that she forgot to keep her internal monologue actually internal. “Seven fucking machines! That’s fucking rude!” She was fed up. It was too late--or really, too _early_ \--for this bullshit. She had to wake up at eight AM tomorrow, and accounting for how long her laundry would take, it looked like she might get three and a half hours of sleep at most if she were lucky. She could not spare even one minute of her precious rest. Also, how was Dash to know that this asshole would come down in six minutes? He could have fallen asleep and forgotten about his laundry, and Dash was not in the mood to be seen in public while looking like a highlighter. 

Dash stared at the seven washing machines and groaned. She did not give a shit about other people’s feelings--especially if said people were narcissistic assholes who used up all of the laundry machines when there were hundreds of other kids living in the building. Yeah, sure, it was almost two AM, but why should he assume that he is the only one doing laundry at this hour?

“Fuck you, cunt,” Dash said as she opened the first washing machine. A few socks tumbled out of the heap of wet clothes along with a small pool of water. Dash took the sopping mass out of the machine and threw it on the floor. She reached for her bag to put her own clothes in before hesitating.

Injustice could only be solved with justice. Using all available washing machines was an injustice. A heinous injustice. Dash was too fatigued for her impulse control to be in check, and before she knew it, she was opening the six other washing machines and throwing all of the clothes on the floor, making sure they were strewn about all over the place. Just as she was in the middle of tearing the asshole’s clothes from the final machine, she was surprised to hear a southern voice interrupt her.

“Excuse me, but what in the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Dash’s head whipped around. She dropped the soaking clothes she was holding as if they were incriminating evidence, but she had been caught all the same. If the accent alone hadn’t been enough to throw her off, the sight of the girl standing in front of her certainly was. She was taller than Dash, (who was 5’6”) with bright green eyes and frizzy strawberry blonde hair that touched just below her shoulders and stuck out at odd, messy angles. It was just unkempt enough that Dash’s first thought was that it looked like this girl had just fucked some incredibly lucky soul. Dash felt her face redden faster than she had previously thought possible. “I--just--uh, nothing,” she managed, stammering like crazy. _Be cool_ , she commanded herself. She stood up and tried to feign confidence. She didn’t usually have to fake it, but then again, she also didn’t usually talk to Insanely Hot Girls. 

Insanely Hot Girl cocked an eyebrow and placed her hands on her hips with a bit more attitude than Dash was anticipating. “Nothing,” she affirmed sarcastically, to which Dash nodded. She took a few steps closer to Dash and held her ground. Dash could see the freckles that peppered her nose and cheeks and became worried that her heart might stop. 

“So, is ‘nothing’ short for ‘taking all my clothes out of my washing machines’?” she asked Dash, who momentarily forgot how to speak.

“I just--well, it’s really a dick move to use seven machines, bro,” Dash responded when she came to, trying (and failing) to keep her voice from cracking. 

“Well, for your information, I haven’t done laundry in a few weeks so I definitely have more clothes than you. And I was down here first, so I can use as many machines as I want. Nobody else was here. And I’m telling you that if I saw all the machines being used, I would wait for the girl to come down and take her clothes out herself. _You’re_ the real dick here.” She finished by crossing her arms and leaning back, definitely looking _way_ cooler than Dash had. _Fuck._

“Well, okay,” Dash began. “I guess I’m kinda sorry. I shouldn’t have done that, or whatever. But really, seven machines? I mean, come on, man! Other people have to do laundry here!”

“I don’t usually do that. I don’t usually do laundry at two AM either, for god’s sake. Just move so I can put my damn clothes in the dryer.” Insanely Hot Girl bent down to pick up her wet clothes and throw some of them into the nearest dryer. Dash could have said something she thought was smart, like _Are you going to use ten dryers?_ But instead, she blurted out: “What time do you usually come here?”

Insanely Hot Girl shot up to look at Dash. “Excuse me?”

Dash panicked. “Do laundry,” she tried to explain. “What time do you usually do laundry?”

“I’m _sorry_?”

Dash felt herself blush for the second time in the past few minutes. Insanely Hot Girl stood up and moved closer to Dash’s face. “Why?”

Dash shrugged and tried to play it off. “Y’know, just so I can avoid you. ‘Cause you use so many machines.” Insanely Hot Girl rubbed her temples and sighed. “I come here on Fridays. At night. People are usually out so nobody’s here. And I _don’t_ use so many machines!” she snapped, quickly crouching down again to snatch up her clothes. She threw them into seven different dryers and slammed the doors shut. She stormed out of the laundry room.

Dash peered over at the seven dryers. They’d all be done in an hour. The washers ran for thirty eight minutes, so there was no real reason for dash to be around when Insanely Hot Girl’s clothes were done drying. Dash begrudgingly threw the rest of her clothes in the washer and went upstairs.

“Huh?”

Dash groaned. “I asked if you have any laundry. So I could do it for you. Tonight.”

Her roommate, Pinkie Pie, looked back up at her quizzically. “Since when do you offer me favors?” Pinkie narrowed her eyes. “What do you want out of me?” 

Dash put her hands up in defense. “Bro, I don’t want anything! Can’t a friend offer to do her friend’s laundry? Christ! The _one time_ I try to do something nice for you--”

“Okay Dashie, you’re plenty nice, even though you act all tough and scary so you don’t want to admit it,--”

“Shut up! That’s not my point! Do--”

“--you always come with me to get food even when you’re not hungry--”

“Pinkie--”

“--and you’re always threatening to beat up people who mess with me and I know that you say it’s just ‘cause you want to punch someone--”

“Okay, Pinkie, I--”

“--but I happen to know that it’s cause you not-so-secretly really like me and think that I--”

“PINKIE PIE! Jesus CHRIST, could you shut up for, like, a minute please! Do you want me to do your fucking laundry or not?”

Pinkie stopped and looked at her friend. She shrugged her shoulders. “Yeah, sure,” she finally decided, before adding: “but only if I can come with you when you do it!” Rainbow Dash mentally facepalmed. Yes, she adored Pinkie more than just about anyone else she had ever met, but the point was to meet with Insanely Hot Girl _alone_ and considerably more awake. 

“Well, if you’re coming, then what’s the point of me doing your laundry?”

“Would you rather I just do my laundry alone?” Pinkie retorted. Dash stammered, stopped, threw her head up and groaned. Again. “Fine.”

The pair then were soon in the elevator going down to the laundry room. If Pinkie Pie noticed Rainbow Dash nervously shifting, she thankfully didn’t point it out. Dash lugged the laundry bag behind her and pushed open the doors. She tried not to be so outwardly excited as she frantically searched the laundry room for Insanely Hot Girl. She wasn’t there. Crushed, Dash moved over to the nearest washing machine and began to load in Pinkie’s clothes. Taking it as an invitation, Pinkie hopped up on the machine that she was filling. She was wearing a short sleeved shirt and Dash could see all the new drawings that she had added to her arms since Dash last saw them. Pinkie doodled on her arms all the time: in class, when she was out with friends, and even while she ate. The most noticeable addition was a cat in a spacesuit surrounded by stars. Dash could see the appeal of drawing on yourself, but she didn’t know why Pinkie refused to use anything but sharpies.

Just as Dash was finishing, she heard the door open. She instantly glanced over to see Her. Insanely Hot Girl. Again.

“Well, well, well. I see you’re back,” Dash said as slyly as she possibly could. Insanely Hot Girl turned to see who was speaking to her and groaned. Dash nearly tripped over herself as she turned to get a better look at her. “Are you going to use seven machines this time?” Dash asked her, hoping it came out flirty. Pinkie glanced from Dash to Insanely Hot Girl, understandably confused. Insanely Hot Girl looked back at Dash and chose to ignore her. 

Pinkie Pie spun around to face Insanely Hot Girl, who had started putting her clothes into a washer on the opposite side of the room. “You guys know each other?” she asked her, prompting Rainbow Dash to come up from crouching so suddenly that she hit her head on the top of the machine drum. “Huh?” was all Dash managed to spit out as she forcibly rubbed the top of her head.

“You and AJ. I didn’t know you guys knew each other.”

“We don’t,” AJ snapped. She stopped loading her machine and came closer to face Dash and Pinkie. “She took all of my clothes out of my washing machines last Wednesday night while they were still running and threw them on the floor.”

Pinkie’s jaw dropped as she turned to Dash with a judgmental stare. “I said I was sorry!” Rainbow Dash insisted, her voice climbing to a pitch considerably higher than her normal speaking tone. “Look, I admit it was a dick move. But it was only ‘cause you were using all seven machines! I promise I won’t do it to you ever again.”

“Somehow I don’t know if I believe you.”

“I’ll do my laundry on Friday afternoons with you so that I know what machines you’re using,” Dash offered. It was mostly just so that she would be able to stare at AJ, but who else would know that?

AJ laughed at her last comment. “You really think I would purposefully see you once a week?” Dash gasped in (not so) mock defense and held her hand to her chest.   
“Ouch. That hurt. Really. Come on, I’m awesome! _And_ hot! The total package! What could be better than that?”

“Well maybe I could appreciate how attractive you were if you weren’t such an arrogant asshole for starters,” AJ retorted before turning and going back to her laundry. The trio remained silent for the remainder of the time, but Dash’s mind was racing with _SHE THINKS I’M HOT._

Dash finished up her friend’s laundry and tugged on her arm. “C’mon Pinkie, let’s get outta here.” Pinkie hopped off the washing machine and waved to the tall blonde. “See you next Tuesday, Applejack!” Before Dash had time to process the comment, she and Pinkie were already out the door. 

“Tuesday?” she hissed at her short friend once the door was shut and Applejack was out of earshot. “How do you know that girl?”

Pinkie giggled. “She and I are in art club together. She’s not that into it, but I think her fancy roommate made her join. Something about ‘necessary bonding’. But did you seriously take all her clothes out of her machines last week?”

“No!” Dash quickly defended. Pinkie cocked an eyebrow. “Well, yeah, _technically_ , I guess I did,” Dash admitted with a dramatic eye roll, “but I didn’t know that it would be some hot girl I’d end up wanting to fuck instead of some ugly asshole boy!” Dash finished in an angry whisper. Pinkie leaned back and shrieked with laughter. “Pinkie Pie, _shut the fuck up_!”

“Dashie, c’mon. You’re not fooling anybody. You’re a bottom and everybody knows it.”

Dash punched Pinkie in the arm. Hard. “If you’re really that into her,” Pinkie began, rubbing her upper arm tenderly where she had been hit, “I don’t think that sabotaging her late night laundry adventure was the best way to go about showing it.”

“You don’t need to remind me!” Dash whisper-shouted at her as they got into the elevator. Once the door had closed, she spoke again. “And yeah. I know. I didn’t know that she would look Like That until she came into the laundry room, okay? And hot girls usually aren’t such assholes.”

“I think this experience can teach you a lot about patience and kindness, Dashie.”

“I don’t need to learn about those things right now. What I need is to get in that girl’s pants, okay?”

“Okay, Dash, chill. Applejack is, like, a really super duper great person and I don’t want you to demean her to just some sex toy. She doesn’t deserve that.”  
For what was probably the fiftieth time that day, Dash groaned (Pinkie was not counting that day, but on September twenty-ninth she did, in fact, count, and in the ten total hours that the pair was together, Dash groaned a total of one hundred and thirty-six times). “C’mon, Pinkie Pie. Big words. You know how I feel about them.” 

Pinkie rolled her eyes. “I mean I don’t want you to only see her as an object. That’s not very feminist of you, babe. Pretty soon you’ll be telling me you’re a terf. Also, have you ever learned anything about context clues?”

“God. What, do you think I paid attention in my English classes like some dumb egghead? No way, bro. But fine. Tell me more about this girl. I need to know everything.” The elevator chimed and the doors opened, allowing the pair to walk towards their dorm. “Jeez, Dashie, calm down.” Pinkie said to her as she swiped her card to unlock the door. 

While the girls shared one room, the two hemispheres could not be more clearly separated. The bed on the left side facing the door was topped with a fluffy baby pink comforter and a rose gold body pillow. There was a puffy pillow at the top of the bed with a yellow case adorned with tiny blue polka dots. The bed was neatly made with a tiny, stuffed alligator sitting just to the right of her pillow. Just above where her head lay every night was a printed out picture of Megamind taped to the wall. There was a circular lavender shag rug on the floor, and if you looked closely, you would see that tiny pieces of confetti were seemingly woven throughout the strands. Visitors could never tell if it was intentional or if the rug just needed to be vacuumed. 

Her desk did not look as clean as the rest of her room, but she would argue that it was more of an “organized chaos”. Her closed laptop sat in the center of her desk, littered with so many stickers that it was impossible to discern what type of computer it was. Some of Pinkie’s more eye-catching stickers included: stickers of Strength, The Hermit, and The Sun tarot cards (or Arcanum eight, nine, and nineteen), The Two Trucks having sex (from the Lemon Demon song), several very cursed Spongebob stickers, a sticker of Shane and Ryan from Buzzfeed Unsolved, and Another picture of Megamind. The rest of her desk was scattered with sharpies of more colors than Dash previously knew existed. Unused balloons covered the parts of her desk that were sharpie-free.

The corner of her desk supported a tower of books that was dangerously close to falling into her trash. Some notable works featured in Pinkie’s Great Tower of Books: _The Communist Manifesto, As You Like It, Medea_ by Euripides, a book about “unlocking the secrets of the tarot”, _Bad Feminist, Good Omens, Matilda, 365 Days of Tao, The Yellow Wallpaper, Good Eats: Volume 1, The Early Years, Good Eats 2: The Middle Years_ , and _Good Eats 3: The Later Years_. At the bottom of the pile was a copy of _The Diaries of Adam and Eve_ by Mark Twain. 

The right side of the room was vastly different. The rug on the floor was a deep red, the sheets on the bed black. All of the blankets were different shades of blue and they were all crumpled and limply hanging off of the mattress. Countless pieces of clothing littered the floor; they were mostly various kinds of black and white athletic wear, with the occasional navy blue t-shirt or two. The desk was covered with empty cans of Kickstart. A bottle of pills (that Dash had to constantly confirm to Pinkie that yes, were ADHD medication and not steroids) had spilled on the top of the desk, and the pills were strewn about all over the place. Various other items that lived on Dash’s desk: 1 (one) half-eaten bag of popcorn, 7 (seven) random sheets of crumpled up paper that could either be a plain sheet of loose leaf or a syllabus, 9 (nine) pens of different colors that were almost out of ink and had ends chewed so mercilessly that you would have thought it had been mauled by a teething raccoon, 4 (four) stale mini marshmallows, 1 (one) mug of a mystery substance that had begun to grow its own culture of bacteria, and 1 (one) figurine of Undyne from Undertale. 

“Applejack,” Pinkie huffed as she plopped down on her bed, making her stuffed alligator jump, “is cool as heck. She’s so sure of herself and what she wants. She loves her family and misses them tons. She’s super caring and sweet and funny and she’s just the best.”

“Very specific,” Rainbow Dash noted to the shorter girl. Dash had meant to mock her, but Pinkie just laughed. Pinkie Pie’s insistence on laughing at everything tortured Rainbow Dash endlessly, as she considered herself a master of insults. 

“Well, she joined art club ‘cause her roommate Rarity made her. Those two are exact opposites of each other. Rarity has a freaking posh accent and wears these beautiful clothes that she sews herself and AJ just wears the same pair of overalls all the time. I’m surprised that she has enough laundry to do every week, cause all her clothes kinda look the same and--”

“You’re getting off track, here, Pinkie--”

“ She’s into sports but doesn’t play any for the school teams. She just does it for fun, I think. But she’s always at art club every Tuesday night. Do you want to come with me next week so you can see her again?”

Dash considered this for a moment. She could go, but then she would be around other people (read: Pinkie). Dash wanted to get to know Applejack without others intruding. She wasn’t that desperate that she had to follow Pinkie around just to see her. Yet. 

“Nah,” she finally responded. “I think I can try to do this on my own. She’ll be in my arms in no time.” Dash bragged with a smug smile. Pinkie laughed at her.

Next friday, AJ said approximately fourty-four words to Rainbow Dash, not that she was counting or anything. 

“You again,” AJ said to her once she walked in.

“We’ve gotta stop meeting like this.” Dash flashed her best charismatic smile. She managed to get a small chuckle out of Applejack: her first win. “So. Applejack.” Dash jumped up on top of the washer that AJ was currently putting her clothes into. “I know your name. Do you even know mine?”

She paused momentarily but did not look up at Rainbow. “No.”

Dash sat expectantly in the silence for a moment. She widened her eyes and stuck out her head towards the blonde. “Well?”

“What?”

“Are you gonna ask what my name is?”

“Nah,” she said, slamming the door of her washing machine shut. She stood up and grabbed Dash. Applejack wasted no time in physically moving Rainbow Dash’s aside so that she could put her detergent into the machine. Dash’s brain momentarily stopped working after the contact. Applejack continued without even glancing towards Dash. “If we’re on a first name basis, then I’d have to stop calling you That Bitch in my brain. I think it suits you better.”

Dash hopped off the washing machine to face Applejack better, but it didn’t work as effectively as she’d hoped; the blonde had three inches on her. “Rainbow Dash,” she said fiercely, looking up at Applejack. “My name is Rainbow Dash.” 

Applejack squinted at her. The left corner of her mouth turned up. “Nah. That Bitch has a nice ring to it. It _does_ suit you better.” Applejack then proceeded to walk out of the laundry room, leaving Dash red and fuming. 

“Hey, AJ!” Dash greeted as she walked into the too-bright laundry room. 

“Howdy, That Bitch,” Applejack countered, not even bothering to look up from folding her clothes. 

“I have an idea. We spend so much time here together every Friday night, and we do our laundry in silence! Like, come on! We should get to know each other! Wanna play twenty questions?” Dash finished her proposal with the signature Rainbow Dash Smile(™) that always made the lesbians weak in the knees. 

Applejack paused her folding momentarily to turn and look at Dash. “Is there any way I can refuse?”

“Nah. I’m pretty much forcing you, bro. So I’ll go first. What’s your favorite color?”

Applejack’s eyebrows furrowed quizzically and scrunched up her nose. “That’s not twenty questions.”

Dash smirked and raised an eyebrow. “Uh, yeah it is. We each ask each other twenty questions. It’s literally in the name of the game, dude.”

Applejack sighed before answering. “Sunset purple. The light lavender one. Now I get to ask you a question, right?” Dash nodded, but only after wondering whether or not she wore underwear that color. “If you asked about when I do laundry so that you could specifically avoid me, why have I seen you here every week since?”

Dash felt her face redden as her breath caught in her throat. “I-- just--” she stammered, her thoughts racing as she frantically tried to put together an adequate response. “I just...want to make sure that you aren’t hogging up the machines for everyone else. You know?” Rainbow Dash tried to make her excuse sound more convincing by adding a small laugh. This only made it worse.

Applejack’s eyes narrowed. She stopped folding her laundry and turned to face Dash, arms crossed. “Yeah, alright. Now what’s the real reason?”

Rainbow Dash was silent. “We’re kinda...friends, right? I mean...I kinda like seeing you, I guess.” Dash then looked towards Applejack, whose expression and stance had not changed. “I don’t know,” she added hurriedly, “even though you’re an asshole who uses up all of the laundry machines.”

Applejack continued to look at her for a moment before showing a soft smile. “For being That Bitch, you’re not so bad yourself, hotshot.” She turned back to folding her laundry, finishing up her last shirt. Dash felt dizzy. _Hotshot_? Before Applejack could walk out, Dash asked her next question: “Uh--do you like girls?”

Applejack looked at her in the eyes and threw her head back and roared with laughter. It was melodious. While Dash was distracted by the sound, she hadn’t noticed Applejack leave her alone and even more frustrated than before.

Dash dragged her bag of laundry out of the elevator and slammed open the door to her and Pinkie’s room. “THREE HOURS,” Dash hollered, making Pinkie jump nearly a foot off her bed. She was wearing headphones and looking at something on her phone. Dash ignored this and continued to yell at her. “I waited in the laundry room for _three hours_. From ten to midnight. I sat in the laundry room and fucking waited for three hours for Applejack. And she didn’t show up!” Rainbow Dash tossed her bag of laundry into her closet and threw herself onto her bed. 

Pinkie took her headphones off. Immediately, the sound of heavily autotuned music filled the small room.   
_Ba da do doo daa  
Ba da dee skedadee_\--  
Pinkie Pie fumbled with her phone and the music stopped. “Huh? I didn’t get any of that.”

Rainbow Dash sighed. “I am going through a crisis and you are watching that fucking roach video!?”

“I didn’t know you were going through a crisis!” The genuine concern in Pinkie’s eyes melted a bit as she added: “And he’s so funky! Look at him go!”

“That doesn’t matter right now!” As she pretended not to hear Pinkie’s muffled comment about how _the roach always matters_ , Dash forced herself to take a breath and cool down before continuing. “I waited for Applejack in the laundry room for three hours and she didn’t show up. Did I do something wrong?” Rainbow Dash paused. “Do you think it’s ‘cause I asked her if she likes girls?”

Pinkie Pie laughed off the comment. “Don’t be silly, Dashie. AJ is butcher than you. And I don’t think that she’s the kind of person to be upset by that. She was probably just busy tonight or something. It’s a Friday night, for pete’s sake. Maybe she went to a party! Did you even do your laundry?”

Dash had to wait a second to answer as she processed that Pinkie, an eighteen-year-old in the twenty-first century, said _for pete’s sake._ “No!” she managed eventually. “‘Cause I didn’t have that much and I was too fucking mad to do it anyways.”

Pinkie Pie shrugged and put her headphones back on. “Well, don’t complain to me when you don’t have enough clothes to last all of next week,” she finished a bit more loudly than she needed to. 

Dash still continued to watch her as she let her anger fester. Pinkie’s eyebrows scrunched up a bit in confusion. “What?” Rainbow Dash asked her, truthfully caring very little about the answer. Pinkie Pie paused the video she was watching and turned to her friend.

“Ten to midnight. You were there for two hours, babe.” Pinkie snickered. 

Dash picked up her pillow from her bed and hurled it at Pinkie’s face.

Dash most certainly did _not_ complain to Pinkie when she ran out of clean clothes later that week. She was very against hearing _I told you so_ from anyone, even Pinkie. She complained only to herself on Wednesday night at one AM in the elevator down to the laundry room. She was in the middle of berating herself for procrastinating on something _yet again_ when she walked into the heinously-lit room. After momentarily adjusting to the light, Dash saw a tall figure with a familiar puff of wavy blonde hair standing at the table folding clothes. 

“Oh, well, well, _well._ We meet again,” Rainbow Dash declared, dropping her bag and marching up to Applejack. The blonde turned around to face her. Her eyes were strained and swollen, her cheeks glistening with tears. Applejack groaned. “Not you,” she spat with a huff. She returned to her clothes. “I do _not_ need you right now.”

Dash was taken aback and instantly dropped her charming, cocky demeanor. Her face softened and she moved so she could look at Applejack again. Rainbow Dash was not very good with emotions--she was learning that more and more each day from the guidance of Pinkie, whose favorite game was “Let’s Talk About Our Feelings!”. Somehow, it was the only game Dash always managed to lose. It was difficult for her to articulate the things that she felt; she usually got it out in sports or by making some flashy show to mask her inner emotions. 

But she did know how to make people feel loved. 

Dash wordlessly moved Applejack’s wrist so the two were standing face to face, and then wrapped her arms around the blonde’s torso and buried her face into the crook of her neck. Rainbow Dash physically felt every muscle in Applejack’s body tense up as she took a sharp breath. “What the hell are you playing at?” Applejack hissed, but did not shove Dash away. 

“It’s a hug. I’m hugging you.”

“Yeah, I got that, smartass. Why?”

“‘Cause you need it, obviously. You were crying. What do you do when you see someone cry?” Applejack paused for a moment before deciding that she had reached her limit. She shoved Dash away a bit more forcefully than the girl in question was expecting. 

“If she told me she didn’t wanna see me,” she started, before quickly sniffing and then wiping her left cheek, “I wouldn’t say nothing. That’s rude. You think I’m rude, but at least I don’t intrude on other people’s personal boundaries and bug them every week even if they clearly don’t wanna talk!” Dash flinched as Applejack’s tone rose; she had begun to yell at Dash. 

Dash took a step back and turned away from the taller girl. She shoved her hands into her pockets with a sigh. “Look. Applejack.” she began, quiet and sincere. Her eyes remained fixed on the floor. “I’m sorry. Okay? Like, seriously deadass deadass.” _stupid idiot why did you say deadass this is a serious conversation why_ \-- “You don’t deserve...whatever’s hurting you. And I’m not good with words, but I’m sorry I bugged you nonstop for five weeks and I’ll stop doing my laundry the same nights as you. That...wasn’t cool. Of me. To do. Yeah.” Dash managed to peer up at Applejack, who remained frozen. 

“I mean,” Rainbow Dash began again, unable to sit in the silence. “I just wanted to get to know you ‘cause you seemed so awesome and you _are_ even though we’ve only exchanged like five hundred words and most of them are mean. But I just want you to know that I think you’re...great, you know?” She lifted up her head and manifested the courage to take another slow step towards Applejack. “Like, I came in here, and I saw you crying, and I got sad ‘cause seeing you made me sad ‘cause...I never want you to be sad? You don’t deserve it.” Dash let out a small, breathy laugh and ran her left hand through her hair, shoving an orange chunk out of her line of vision. “And I suck at words and I’m probably illiterate but whatever is happening is gonna get better. ‘Cause bro, I don’t even know you, but you can do anything, man.” Dash took a few deep breaths. Save the whirring of the laundry machines and the constant _bzzzz_ coming from the cheap blinding lights, Rainbow Dash had never heard a room so quiet. 

Applejack remained still, staring at the shirt that she had been folding. She had started to silently cry once more. Her whole body trembled as she physically tried to keep herself from bawling. Every now and then she would sharply inhale in an attempt to steady her breathing. Seeing Applejack in such turmoil made Dash’s heart ache in a way it never had, but she finally accepted that she was not wanted.

Dash nodded to herself and started to head for the door. She nearly tripped over her laundry bag, which had been long forgotten on the floor. She mentally started to ready herself to look like a princess pack of Crayola crayons tomorrow. Applejack needed to be alone. 

Before she reached the exit, Dash heard Applejack mutter something quietly but was unable to make it out. Dash spun around so quickly she nearly fell down. “Huh?” she inquired of Applejack ever so eloquently, her eagerness evident. 

Applejack turned slowly to face Rainbow Dash. “My sister,” she repeated, looking her in the eyes. “It’s stupid. I just really miss my sister.”

Dash almost ran to Applejack’s side. _Hey, bro, try not to be so excited that this girl is depressed_ she mentally chided herself. “I don’t think it’s stupid,” she offered softly with as much sincerity that she could muster. “I think it’s really dope that you love her so much.” A long, awkward pause followed. Dash looked at Applejack, who stared at the floor. She had stopped crying, but her eyes were still glassy. “Wanna talk about it?” Dash offered, hoisting herself on top of the nearest laundry machine. “There’s room for two!” she joked, patting the machine to her left. Applejack smiled slightly, and if Rainbow Dash hadn’t committed nearly every one of Applejack’s expressions to memory she might not have noticed. 

Applejack plodded towards Rainbow Dash’s side and climbed on top of the laundry machine adjacent to her. She crossed her legs and let her arms fall on her lap. “I don’t know,” she started. “I don’t really...talk about stuff. How I’m feeling. I usually act all strong and all for my family.” AJ turned to look into Dash’s eyes. _Be cool_ , she reminded herself. 

“I don’t talk about feelings either, so I won’t judge. Unless you’re like a serial killer or something. Then I might judge. Unless you had a good reason.”

Applejack finally let herself laugh. She wiped the remaining tears from her face as she shifted her seating position; her left leg was outstretched, while her other was upright so she could rest her forearm on her knee. Applejack might have said something before “I’ve never,” but Rainbow Dash could not hear it while her brain was screaming _GAYS CAN’T SIT GAYS CAN’T SIT GAYS CAN’T SIT GAYS CAN’T_ \--

“It’s just that I’ve never been away from home. And it’s not some pathetic homesickness. I practically run my family’s apple orchard by myself. My parents died when I was younger, and my granny is too old to do what she used to. My big brother and I do a bunch of the manual labor, but I also do all the numbers and finances and stuff myself.” 

Before Dash could say one of her Phrases(™) like ‘That’s cool’, or ‘Dope’, Applejack continued. “And I shouldn’t have come to college ‘cause without me, that farm is nothing. And they won’t tell me they’re having problems or anything like that, but I just know they are. They just don’t wanna upset me and make me feel like I’ve gotta come home.” Applejack took a break and then glanced towards Rainbow Dash with a sad smile. “But I don’t belong here. My life is already laid out for me. It started on that farm and that’s where it’s gonna end. I can’t waste my family’s time and money here.” Applejack finished with a sniff. She looked back at the floor, but Rainbow Dash’s gaze remained fixed on her.

“Is that what you want?” Rainbow Dash asked her quietly.

It was a moment before Applejack responded. “I don’t know,” she admitted. It was almost too quiet for Dash to hear clearly. “But it’s what has to happen.”

“Are you seriously the only one who can run it?” 

Applejack nodded solemnly. “And I do even more than that. I practically had to raise my little sister Applebloom. She barely even remembers when mom and dad died. I had to grow up real fast.” 

Although the solution seemed simple to Rainbow Dash, she wanted to be careful as she had already upset Applejack so many times. But in that moment, Rainbow Dash cared more about Applejack hearing the truth than their already weak ‘friendship’. 

“Applejack. Look at me,” Dash demanded. The other girl turned her head towards her. She wrapped her hands around her knee and hugged it to her chest. “You are the only person that matters to you.” AJ shot up to interrupt her with “But my family--”, but Dash was too quick. “Will figure out how to do things on their own. They shouldn’t put all that pressure on you. How old are you, like eighteen?”

“Nineteen.”

“Still! You’re only _nineteen_ and there’s still so much pressure on you. AJ, you need to learn that everything isn’t your responsibility. You have a fucking older brother. They can hire people. I don’t know how old your sister is but she probably isn’t stupid. I shouldn’t get too into your personal life, but like. Bro. You need to be a kid. Just forget that responsibility cause it isn’t all up to you! You can live whatever fucking life you want!” Dash grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer. Applejack stared at her, bewildered. 

“I mean…” she chuckled. “I wish it was that simple, Dash.”

Rainbow Dash grinned. “You said my name.” 

Applejack’s eyes widened. “Huh? I did?” Dash nodded so excitedly her hair was a multicolored blur. “God dammit,” AJ spat out before breaking into a fit of laughter.   
When the giggles subsided, Dash continued. “But seriously, bro. I promise that it is that simple. Your family loves you and they want you to be happy. They can work things out themselves! You need to focus on you.”

Applejack pulled her arm away gently and lifted her left knee up, hugging both to her chest. “It’s just that nobody’s ever told me that before. So why should I believe you of all people?”

“Believe me because I would never go against you,” Dash didn’t so much plead as state powerfully, looking directly into Applejack’s eyes, electrified. The room was silent for several seconds before Applejack broke the pause.

“I think tomorrow I’m gonna drop out before next semester,” she admitted, turning away. “That’s why I’m so upset. I don’t want to leave, But I’ve gotta. There’s nothing else I can do.”

“Do you like bets?” Dash blurted out before she even made a plan.

Applejack knit her eyebrows. “What?”

“Like betting. On shit. Like, ‘Oh, I bet you five dollars that I can run faster than you,’ or something like that. You know?”

The blonde’s face scrunched up in confusion. “Yeah, I guess. Why?”

“I bet you that I can make you stay here.” Dash meant for it to sound like a challenge, but instead it came out the same way one might say ‘Will you marry me,’ or ‘Move in with me’. Applejack moved her body so she was facing Dash. “Explain.”

“There’s still six weeks left in the semester. Do you know the last date you can tell the school you’re dropping out without losing money?”

“Two weeks before the end of the semester.”

“Okay. So if I can convince you that staying next semester is a good idea, you have to stay all through next year. But if you still want to go home in four weeks, then I let you. But you can’t just say you still want to leave to win the bet. If I genuinely convince you, then I win.”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “That hardly seems like a fair trade to me. I don’t get jack shit out of it.”

Dash frantically thought. _Ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas_ \--

“I’ll do all your laundry after you register to drop out. I swear.” Applejack snorted. 

“That’s only two weeks. That’s still not worth it.”

“I’ll do your garbage too. And I’ll buy you a ton of food. And I'll give you, like, fifty dollars. And I would do your homework but I promise you don’t want that ‘cause I--” Applejack broke Dash’s train of thought with her miraculous, booming laughter. “Fine. Whatever. You’ve got yourself a deal, That Bitch.”

Rainbow Dash broke out into a smile so bright that the laundry room lights should have felt threatened. “Well, you better get used to living here, bro, ‘cause you ain’t going anywhere.” Applejack stuck out her hand. Dash shook it once with her own, trying to tune out her brain’s ear-shattering keysmash.

Rainbow Dash knocked on the door violently. “AJ,” she yelled nearly at the top of her lungs. “OPEN UP!” The door swung open to reveal an extremely pale girl with (obviously unnatural) purple curly hair that fell down her back. She was dressed too well to be a college student, but she and Dash were clearly around the same age. She wore a pale blue pleated skirt with a soft looking gray shirt that Dash might have called _cashmere_ if her life depended on her identifying it. Dash couldn’t tell if it was a sweater or just a normal long sleeved shirt. She wore six ( _six!_ ) expensive-looking rings ( _is this bitch engaged to six people?_ ); one on each of her index, middle, and ring fingers. 

“Excuse me,” she huffed, “is there any particular reason that you are standing at my door _screaming_!?”

“O-kay,” Dash said, drawing out the ‘o’ and putting her hands up in defense. “Chill out. I’m just here to see Applejack, alright?”

Expensive Girl huffed once again before turning back into her suite. Dash rolled her eyes once the girl’s back was turned. _Straight girls._

A few seconds later, Applejack had come out of her room, wearing Another pair of overalls over Another white t-shirt. “Hey AJ,” Dash slyly said, trying to make coolness ooze out of every fabric of her being.

“Hey, That Bitch,” Applejack responded, concealing a grin which _oh god oh fuck_ made all of Rainbow Dash’s Cool Exterior(™) melt away. “So do you have fantastic adventures planned that will make me want to stay here?”

“Oh, my sweet, foolish Applejack. You have no idea.” 

In Rainbow Dash’s mind, “fantastic adventures” had roughly translated into “Cheap Things That Rainbow Dash Can Afford”. They went to a specific sushi place because Dash “[liked] a challenge”(a.k.a. wanted to show off). 

“You give them twenty dollars, and they give you as much fucking sushi as you want. But you have to eat all of it or you pay the full price.”

Applejack stared at her. “Why the hell would you ever want to do that to yourself?”

Dash grabbed Applejack’s shoulders. “For the _glory_ , AJ. For the glory.”

In the end, Applejack ended up eating ten more pieces of sushi than Dash. Rainbow Dash muttered something about how her loss could only due to the fact that Applejack was into vore. For the next two weeks, it became quite the lovely routine. Dash would pound on Applejack’s door and pick her up after class to take her on some adventure that left her with her wallet lighter but her spirits brighter. 

“Hey, Rarity!” Rainbow Dash chimed. The girl in question glared at her through the locks of violet hair that hung in front of her face. Rarity held the door open with her outstretched left arm, resting her right hand on the door frame. She tapped her fingernails in a way that Dash could only assume was to seem overly passive aggressive. She glared up at Dash so fiercely it could have killed her. Dash peered through the mass of purple hair and saw that Rarity’s eyes were puffy and red as if she had been crying. They looked...different. 

“What on earth gives you reason to be so loud and chipper at this hour, Rainbow Dash?” Rarity said each word deliberately, cutting at Dash. Unfortunately for Rarity, this did not bother her in the slightest.

“I’m here to hang out with AJ,” Dash beamed. “But are you okay? Your eyes look...different. Somehow.” She stifled a laugh, which came out more like a snort.

Rarity’s eyes widened and she groaned. She quickly turned around and stormed into her room, muttering things that Dash couldn’t quite make out. The door slammed in her face. A few minutes later, Applejack emerged, laughing to herself. She rolled her eyes. “Sorry about her. Rarity’s last pair of fake eyelashes fell in the trash this morning before she could do her makeup. She’s saying that she won’t be able to look at anyone until she gets new ones.”

Dash let out a _pfft._ “You’re kidding, right?” Applejack shook her head. Rainbow Dash threw back her head and roared with laughter, hoping that Rarity could hear it. Applejack joined her as they walked to the elevator. The pair had agreed to go to Starbucks today--it was November, and the Christmas drinks were finally available. 

They walked off campus and crossed the street. It had just rained earlier that morning, so everything was still uncomfortably damp. The lights from the cars reflected brightly on the streets thanks to the sheer coat of water. All of the leaves had fallen from the trees weeks ago, but they now sat in damp, squishable clumps next to the pavement. The air was biting, and Dash shoved her hands into her pockets in an effort to fight it. Soon, it would be too cold for her to justify only wearing a sweatshirt outside. 

“I’m so fucking excited for this drink,” Applejack confessed, filling her words with an odd sort of passion. _About Starbucks?_ Rainbow Dash turned up her nose and winced. 

“Did you just moan? About what, a toasted white chocolate mocha? I mean, they’re good, but like--”

“No, That Bitch. I hate coffee. The peppermint hot chocolate. It’s life changing.” Applejack smiled and closed her eyes as if she could taste the drink already. “I wait for it all year. I never buy Starbucks at any other time. It’s the only thing that’s good.”

Dash pulled her hands out of her pockets and pointed a finger at Applejack. “Okay, you did not just say that about mister iced mocha!”

“Hey, easy, tiger! I just don’t like coffee, alright?” Applejack said the words defensively yet with a quiet chuckle. Dash would have had something insulting to retort had Applejack not thrown her off with the _easy, tiger._

Applejack held open the door and Dash walked inside. They got on line and ordered their drinks from a worker who seemed to represent the word ‘tired’ in all its forms and usages. She rolled her eyes after they ordered and then muttered something about how _The Great and Powerful Trixie deserved better than this shitty minimum wage job._ They sat across from one another at a small table once their drinks were made. Applejack took the first sip of her hot chocolate and her eyes fluttered shut with ecstasy. Dash felt as though she were intruding on something private. Applejack set her drink down and smiled contentedly. “So, is there anything new and exciting that’s happened in the last twenty-four hours since I saw you?”

Dash grinned. “Actually, I found out from Pinkie that that girl Twilight used to write fanfiction on fucking fanfiction.net. The super shitty website. And it was actually kinda popular, too!”

Applejack snorted. “Twilight _Sparkle_? What did she write?”

Dash began to laugh so hard that she had trouble getting the words out. The employee--Trixie, as her name tag read--turned over and glared at her. Dash wiped a tear from her eye before saying: “Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy porn. When she was twelve.” Applejack’s laugh boomed throughout the tiny Starbucks, and Trixie looked even more fed up than before. After the laughter had died down, Applejack turned back up to Dash. “So, you read the _Harry Potter_ books then?”

Dash took a drink before she replied. “Nah. I just watched the movies. Reading is for eggheads,” she added defiantly, failing to mention that she had read every book written by Rick Riordan and had the final _Trials of Apollo_ book pre-ordered. Applejack took another sip of her drink and Rainbow Dash tried not to look at her face. 

“What Hogwarts house are you?” Applejack asked her once she had sat the red and green cup on the table. Dash responded immediately, saying “Slytherin,” as if she had been waiting for Applejack to ask the question.

“Gryffindor,” Applejack responded smugly, leaning back in her chair. “We’re like Harry and Draco,” she remarked with a smug grin that told Rainbow Dash that Applejack knew exactly what she was doing. “Except Draco’s a top.” Dash refused to let her feelings show, but her face turned a deep scarlet. She returned to her drink with a sudden desire to think about anything else. 

Next Monday night, Dash knocked on Applejack’s door so hard she could have broken the hinges. She didn’t realize when the door opened, and she nearly knocked Rarity square on the forehead as a result.

“Hey, Rarity. Uh. Wow.” Rainbow Dash began to feel as though she caught Rarity at rather bad moments; however, this time, she at least had eyelashes. She was wearing ill-fitting sweatpants and a tight white tank top, holding an entire pint of Ben and Jerry’s “Everything But The Kitchen Sink” ice cream. Her usually sparkling blue eyes were dead. “You okay?” Dash asked her just because she didn’t know what else to say. She and Rarity weren’t friends, but what else do you say to your crush’s maybe-friend-roommate who looked as though she were going through a mental breakdown?

“I’m _fine_ , thank you,” Rarity said with a huff. “Applejack is inside. You’re watching a movie, right?” Dash shifted uncomfortably as she realized that she and Applejack would not be alone. Rarity, the sobbing mess, would be just a few feet away from them. She merely nodded to Rarity and tried to smile as she was led into the room. She sat down on her bed and leaned back, pulling her laptop on her legs. Dash could see her tears more clearly illuminated by her laptop screen.

Walking into the room, Rainbow Dash immediately felt self conscious. Everything was so much neater than her own. Rarity’s side of the room looked less like a dorm room and more like the home of an interior designer. A very rich interior designer. Fairly lights were draped deliberately across the walls over her bed. She had a large cork board over her bed filled with Polaroids and tiny notes in handwriting too small for Dash to read without a closer look. Her comforter was a deep plum, darker than her hair. She had a pale blue pillowcase and a gold cylindrical pillow that did not look comfortable. Dash guessed that Rarity must have been one of those people who had pillows for decoration instead of comfort. Her respect for Rarity dwindled. There was a small mannequin of a woman’s waist sporting a half finished dress. Pins were all over the golden, shimmery fabric. The skirt flowed out as if the garment were meant to be spun. Rarity’s desk was neatly organized, but instead of housing pens and pencils, different fabrics, threads, and needles sat upon it, each with their own organized section. 

Applejack’s side of the room was plain and comfortable. Dash’s heart nearly ached; it was a well-loved home. Her bed was covered with a maroon and white striped thick blanket with matching pillowcases. Her room was simple. Other than a lamp and a cup of pens, there were only framed photos of her family on her desk. 

Dash plopped herself down next to Applejack on the bed and tried to quiet her thoughts of _we are on the same bed together with one another we are in the same bed we_ \---

Dash turned to Applejack. “So, we watching _Hercules_?” Applejack nodded and grinned as she pulled out her laptop. “Why do you have Disney Plus again?” Dash asked her. 

“It’s really my sister’s. I use it sometimes, but not that much. She pays for it herself,” Applejack explained. Dash watched as Applejack searched to find the movie. She went to put it on before they were interrupted by a very, _very_ loud sob. Applejack and Rainbow Dash both turned to look at Rarity instinctively.

“Wait, are you guys playing that out loud?” Rarity asked, noticing that she had been heard. Her voice shook. She was still crying. 

“Uh, yeah,” Dash turned to her sheepishly. She did not usually feel guilty about things, but this entire situation was just too awkward. Rarity moved off her bed and opened a drawer to get something, leaving her laptop exposed. Dash squinted and saw it paused on a frame of David Tennant with a bowl cut and sunglasses sitting in a car. 

“Uh, Rarity? Is that _Good Omens_?” 

Rarity’s head snapped quickly towards Dash. She was holding a pair of white Beats that she had fished out of her desk drawer. She blushed. 

“Isn’t he, like...too fast or something? Pinkie Pie has made me watch some, but I haven’t seen all of it.” 

Dash’s words were drowned out by sobs because as soon as she said the words “too fast,” Rarity began to bawl so loudly it neared screaming. “They’re in love!”

“I didn’t know straight people liked _Good Omens_ ,” Dash said with a snicker. Rarity gave her a meaningful, ‘I-can’t-believe-you-right-now’ look before rolling her eyes and putting on her headphones. 

Dash and Applejack watched _Hercules_ without talking to Rarity again, but Dash would glance up at her at the occasional loud sniffle, and may or may not have had a gay yearning attack while “I Won’t Say I’m in Love” played. 

The pair continued to hang out regularly, doing whatever their schedules (and Dash’s wallet) would allow. They did everything, from playing Mario Kart (Applejack crushed Rainbow Dash on Cloudtop Cruise, which was supposedly Dash’s best track), going to see the Sonic movie and sneaking into a second movie after (“Applejack. That movie was a _cinematic masterpiece._ You just don’t personally understand the found family trope the way that I do. And he’s fast. They made this movie to appeal specifically to me.” “Well did you know that Jim Carey is an anti-vaxxer?” “WHAT THE FUCK?”), and having adventures in the grocery store (Rainbow Dash almost got them kicked out on account of her being a “public nuisance”). Applejack even convinced Dash to go to a painting night with the art club where they tried to follow along with Bob Ross. Applejack’s turned out better than anticipated; Rainbow Dash’s, however, looked as though it had been painted by a blind mole rat. Applejack teased her mercilessly about it.

Applejack seemed to enjoy everything other than ice skating. She never got the hang of it like Dash said she would. She just fell on her ass over and over and over until Dash rolled her eyes and held her waist as she skated beside her, all the time complaining about how needy AJ was while her brain was saying something along the lines of _ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh_ \--

“What a waste of time,” Applejack complained, furiously untying her skates. Dash shrugged. 

“I dunno. Hockey is pretty cool. I used to want to play when I was a kid, but all the equipment was too expensive. I could only go skate once or twice per winter.” She leaned down to help Applejack untie her right skate as she was still struggling with the long laces of the left one. “You don’t need to buy anything to run,” she said as she pulled Applejack’s skate off of her foot and then brushed her hands aside to fix the left skate.

The pair stood up and walked to return the skates to the rental desk. “You run track, right?” Applejack asked Dash, trying to make conversation. Dash nodded absentmindedly. “Yeah. It’s pretty much the only thing that I’ve been good at. Running. From everything, I guess.” Dash laughed absentmindedly. 

Dash watched as Applejack stuck her hands in her pockets. They walked out of the rink. “You’re good at other things, too, you know.” Dash swerved her head towards Applejack and tried not to look so surprised. “It’s true,” Applejack insisted, rolling her eyes. “Don’t pretend like you don’t know it. You’re always bragging about how you’re the best at everything, and while most of it is a lie, some of it is true. Sometimes. I mean, you’re really good to me. Like, trying to make me happy and feel good about being here and everything. But I don’t want you to feel like you lost when I drop out next semester, ‘cause it won’t be your fault.”

Dash stopped walking. Applejack turned around. “Hey, That Bitch? Are we going back, or…?”

Dash remained tight-lipped. She shook her head. “I should have known that this would happen. You’re not even open at all to staying here. Staying in college will be so good for you, AJ, and you’re just refusing to even admit that. You don’t care how you feel about it after, do you? You’re just gonna drop out anyways, aren’t you?” Dash took a step towards Applejack, feeling her anger burning herself up from the inside. Applejack looked at her pleadingly. Her eyes were warm and her features incredibly soft. Dash thought that it almost looked like Applejack was saying _I wish I could stay. I want to stay. I wish you could make me_ \--

Dash shook those thoughts out of her head. Her jaw was tight and her fists clenched. She took two steps forward until she was looking directly up at Applejack.  
“Dash, c’mon. You know it’s not that simple. I don’t have a choice.” Applejack whispered the last statement sadly. 

“Applejack. I don’t think you know how simple it literally is! Fuck your family! You want to stay here! They can manage things on their own! They agreed to let you come here and it literally is your choice--”

“Don’t you _dare_ say anything like that about my family as if you know me--”

“But I _do_ know you! I know what you want!” Dash grabbed Applejack’s hand and held it close to her person frantically. She was filled with rage and passion and could no longer differentiate between the two. Before her better judgement could decide against it, Dash was grabbing the sides of Applejack’s face and pulling her in for a kiss. Applejack remained frozen. She didn’t react. All too quickly, Applejack shoved Rainbow Dash off of her. 

“You have no idea what I want.” Applejack spat the statement at her with so much force that the words themselves nearly knocked Dash down. Applejack’s eyes and face seemed as if they had lost all of their brilliant shine and color. The only hint that this vessel could be filled with any emotion was the slight quivering in her upper lip. 

“Please,” Dash croaked before Applejack got the chance to abandon her. She rushed towards her and reached for her hand. “Stay for me. AJ.”

Applejack didn’t take her hand. She turned around and left Rainbow Dash standing alone. 

“I just don’t fucking get it. I don’t understand! What did I do!?”

Dash plummeted next to Pinkie who sat cross-legged on her bed. Dash groaned into the pink comforter. Pinkie glanced down at her whining friend and cocked an eyebrow. “Well, I don’t know, but maybe it’s ‘cause you said her family sucked and then kissed her without asking?” Pinkie pulled her stuffed alligator out from underneath Dash’s left thigh, thus saving him from being asphyxiated by the emotional wreck.

“I did _not_ say that her family sucked,” Dash corrected. Her voice was muffled as her mouth was pressed against the bed. Pinkie moved to gently stroke her hair. “I think you said ‘Fuck your family.’” Dash lifted herself up.

“That’s debatable,” she snapped, blowing a red clump of hair out of her face with a huff. “But I only meant it in the ‘Hey, fuck the system!’ way, you know?”

“Yeah, but you still _said_ ‘Fuck your family’. That comes off a little harsh.” Dash sent Pinkie a glare before slumping back down onto the bed face first. She really had not meant any harm when she said that to Applejack. Saying ‘Fuck this’ was something that came very naturally to Rainbow Dash, especially when it revolved around family. She just was not used to people who genuinely loved and cared about their families more than anyone else in their lives. Dash had only known Pinkie for about two and a half months, and she still meant more to her than her parents. 

“I didn’t want to hurt her,” Dash mumbled softly into the sheets. “I just want her to be happy.” Pinkie went back to stroking her hair with a thoughtful _hmm_ , which seemed to say “It sucks, I get it, but it’s going to be okay.” Sometimes, Pinkie could say a lot to Dash without saying anything at all (note: most of the time, Pinkie said Far Too Much. These aforementioned instances were rare occurrences.Very rare.). After a rather tender minute, Pinkie piped back up again brightly. “Speaking of Applejack,” she began--a brilliant segue--“could you pick up my laundry from the dryer? It’s done, but I promised my British lit class group that I’d meet with them to work on our project about--”

“Yeah, yeah. Fine. Whatever. I’ll do your laundry.” Dash hoisted herself off of the bed and put on shoes. She was almost out the door before Pinkie yelled that her clothes were in the third dryer. Dash shoved her hands deep in her sweatshirt pockets as she got on the elevator. _Stupid laundry room_ , she thought to herself, as the elevator’s chimes indicated her descent. _I’ll never be able to wash my clothes again without thinking of that fucking girl_. She dragged her feet across the floor as she exited the elevator and started for the laundry room door. Luckily, this time, she braced herself for the change in lighting. 

Once Rainbow Dash recovered, she still felt a burning sensation; not in her eyes, but all around her face. Applejack stood right in front of her, taking her clothes out of the dryer next to Pinkie’s. Applejack swerved around to view who had just walked into the laundry room. When she saw that it was Dash, her eyes hardened before she sharply turned around, beginning to remove her clothes from the dryer with much more aggression than before. Dash turned around and pulled out her phone, forcefully typing out a message to Pinkie.

_pinkie what the FUCK is wrong w u aj is here  
u knew didnt u  
im not doing ur fucking laundry   
do u even have laundry down here  
i bet ur just watching the fucking great british baking show   
im coming upstairs rn and never speaking to u again_

Just a second later, Dash received a rather enthusiastic text in response:  
 _YOU NEED TO TALK ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!also I deadass need you to do my laundry lmao I won’t be able to pick it up for like another three hours PLEASE THANKSS B :))_

Dash rolled her eyes and typed back another simple _fuck u_ before walking over to the dryers. Pinkie was lucky that Dash was such a good friend. Reluctantly, Dash managed to drag her feet over to the dryers. She stood beside Applejack, who made no moves to acknowledge Rainbow’s presence. Dash approached Pinkie’s dryer, her rose gold laundry bag trailing behind her. Dash stopped in front of the dryer and glanced over at Applejack with only her eyes, sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck. Rainbow Dash was silent.

Dash had not even known this girl for a full semester and had not even seen her out of the laundry room until recently. She could let Applejack walk out of her life so easily. Why was it so damn hard? Dash felt an indescribable pull toward Applejack’s direction. They were both unbelievably competitive, stubborn, and brutally honest. The two girls almost always brought out the worst in each other. If Dash were smart, she would let Applejack go back home to her family and take hold of the business. 

But while Dash was not stupid, per se, she had never been all that smart, either.

“Hey, AJ,” Dash said, trying to make the words as much like an olive branch as possible. Her voice came out quieter and lower than usual. She was holding back in a timid manner that was not in tune with Rainbow Dash’s usual cocky, brash character. Dash looked to her left at the blonde expectantly, waiting for a response, but received nothing in reply. Applejack blinked, not even looking towards Rainbow Dash. In return, Dash winced. She would either have to simply talk at Applejack or figure out some creative way to get her to engage in conversation; but Dash didn’t want any games or falsehoods. She needed to apologize to Applejack, to be open and raw. 

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth. After hesitation, her face dropped and she looked towards the ground. After another moment of preparation (and rushed by the fact that Applejack was almost finished unloading her clothes from the dryer), Dash looked up and faced her friend.

“Applejack,” she croaked out, her voice like a newly pressed cotton sheet: stiff and a bit rugged, yet still comfortable, but not nowhere near as smooth and welcoming as silk. Applejack still ignored Dash, who continued to speak as though she were unperturbed. “I’m sorry. That’s just what I want to say to you. What I said wasn’t...right. I didn’t think and I’m. Sorry. That I said it.” Dash felt her entire face scrunch up in instinctive regret. This was The Most Important Conversation she had had with anyone in years and she could not even get her apology right. 

“Well, you seem to have a way with words.” Applejack laced the sentence with venom, and Dash felt her insides twist and her face heat up. Applejack stopped tending her clothes and--finally--turned to face Rainbow Dash. Her expression was placid, but Dash could still sense a dull anger behind her eyes. “Do you even know why I’m upset with you?”

 _Geez_. Dash felt a little like a young kid being interrogated by their mother after they had taken her wallet and bought seventy dollars’ worth of Girl Scout cookies (note: may or may not be a real life experience had by Rainbow Dash). She swallowed the lump in her throat and moved to answer. “‘Cause, uh. ‘Cause I said ‘Fuck your family’ and then kissed you?” Applejack looked down and let out a breath that Dash was not aware she had been holding. “You said it in pretty simple terms there. But it’s more than that.” Applejack began to turn back to her clothes. Dash instinctively grabbed her arm to turn her back, but then recoiled at the touch. 

“Please. Tell me. I want to make this better, AJ.” Dash was pleading with Applejack, and she meant every word of it. She did not fully know what ‘this’ was, but Rainbow Dash would do almost anything to be able to see Applejack again, to make her laugh, to even just keep her in this goddamn school. Although she rolled her eyes and huffed as she turned, Dash did succeed in regaining Applejack’s attention. “What is ‘this’? We’re barely even friends. Give it a rest, Rainbow Dash. If you don’t let this die, it’ll be even harder for you to get over it when I leave. Just hate me so it’s easier for both of us.” Dash was so taken aback by Applejack’s words that she did not even know how to begin to respond.

“Hate you? What?” Dash had to stop to regain her composure. She ran a hand through her hair and looked up to face the tall blonde. “Applejack. You and I are so incredibly stubborn but you just need to listen to me for a second because you and I are _friends_ , bro. We are friends. I hang out with you on purpose. You mean the literal world to me bro, and I don’t know why I’m telling you this but I can’t stop ‘cause I’m rambling but when I see you or even think about you my heart speeds up? I’m kinda like, drawn to you, I guess? Like. I tried to stop thinking about you but I literally can’t and Pinkie is so tired of listening to me gay complain about how upset I am that we don’t talk and that I fucked everything up ‘cause it’s all I do anymore and this speech has gone on for too long but. You and I...are friends. I like you.” Dash caught her breath from all of the talking, and noted Applejack’s horrifyingly surprised expression. “I’m so sorry! Shit, I-- I shouldn’t really have rambled like that but like. It’s true, I guess. I care about you. That’s why I. Y’know. Kissed you.”

After recovering from the shock of Dash’s word vomit, Applejack managed to chuckle a bit. “Thanks? I guess?” The response was short, but it was positive enough to give Dash a glimmer of hope. There was a moment of mildly uncomfortable silence before Dash found the courage to speak again. “Can I just talk to you? Please. I want to make things right,” Dash requested, her eyes sincere and pleading. Applejack slouched and turned her head towards Dash. She gave the other girl a quick once-over before hoisting herself up on top of the dryer. 

“It ain’t like I’ve got anywhere else to be.” Applejack said flatly. She did not seem overly enthusiastic, but she was still allowing Dash to speak. Small victories. 

“Family is something that I’m not great with,” Rainbow Dash admitted, linking her fingers together at the back of her head. “I mean, I love my parents, but I think I just feel that way ‘cause I’m supposed to? Like, they’re cool I guess, but not...family. Pinkie is more like family to me, honestly. And I know that if I did something that was good for me and made me happy, Pinkie would encourage me to do it and she’d cheer me on. Aggressively. And she’d even do more work and stuff to help me if she had to, you know? ‘Cause she’s family.” Dash took a breath as she realized that her speech was becoming more and more scattered as time went on. _Pull yourself together, Dash_ , she mentally chided herself. 

“She’s not just my friend,” she continued, bringing herself up on the washing machine next to Applejack’s. “And family is supposed to be there for you and support you even when it doesn’t benefit them. It seems like you love your family a whole lot, so I bet they were super supportive with you going to college, right?”

Applejack remained quiet, but nodded. She still did not look towards Dash, who continued. “So why do you think that you should go home? Really?”

Applejack slouched and rested her elbows on her knees, rubbing her temples. She was exhausted from having this conversation with Rainbow Dash over and over. “It’s because I have to. I don’t have a choice. I have to support them. It’s my responsibility.”

“AJ. No. Get that out of your head, alright? Because your only responsibility is to look out for yourself. They love you. They want you to be happy. Are you happy here?”

Applejack remained quiet. She looked ahead, her expression melancholy and her features droopy. Dash wanted to reach out and touch her cheek. She shook the thought from her head and repeated the question. “Are you happy here?” Dash’s voice was quiet. She had somehow managed to find a way to ask Applejack earnestly without becoming aggressive. This act was not lost on Applejack, who seemed to melt at Dash’s words. Somehow, Dash could tell that Applejack was becoming more comfortable with her as time passed.

The left corner of Applejack’s mouth slowly turned upwards. “‘Course I’m happy here.”

Dash forced herself to wait a second before responding, as to avoid breaking out and yelling the words in excitement.“Then that’s all they want for you!” she insisted. She was trying desperately to stay calm. “Seriously, I swear. If you’re happy here, that’s all that matters. They love you and they will understand. Applejack, you need to grow up and be on your own.” Dash winced at her last choice of words. She didn’t want Applejack to think that she was calling her immature, but it was too late. “You mean so much to everyone here, AJ. We would all miss you.”

Applejack looked over to Dash with a cocked eyebrow. Dash chose not to comment on the fact that her eyes were glassy. “So, you’re just trying to guilt me into staying, then?”

Dash groaned. “ _Fuck_ , AJ. No. I just want you to know that everyone loves you. Including me, I guess.”

Applejack laughed. “You know I’m just trying to shoot down all of your arguments, right?” she remarked, and Dash rolled her eyes. “I figured.” The two sat in the silence (which, thankfully, was no longer uncomfortable) for some time before Dash spoke once more.

“You want to leave, don’t you? Otherwise you wouldn’t be so sure about it.”

Applejack’s closed her eyes, allowing Rainbow Dash to stare at Applejack freely with adoration and care without being seen. “It’s complicated,” she admitted to Dash. 

Dash remained in the silence in the moment with Applejack before collecting her thoughts. “You’re so stubborn, AJ.” Rainbow Dash let out a breathy laugh and shook her head. “You have one way to do things and think about things and that’s it, and, like, sometimes that’s cool but not always. ‘Cause I feel like you’re not letting yourself want to stay here. You’re kinda trapping yourself.” 

Applejack slowly opened her eyes and looked at Dash. “But I’m stubborn too,” Dash continued quickly, not wanting to waste her opportunity with a captive audience. “About everything, but mostly about the way I feel about you. I think that you deserve the world and nothing less. I want you to be happy and I want you to have opportunities beyond what you would imagine ‘cause you don’t have to fulfill some kind of family destiny or whatever. And if you want to keep working with your family then _fine_ , that’s alright, but staying here will help you grow so much and realize new things you might want. It’s gonna be positive for you and your future! And, bro, you are so rad and I want you to have a rad life, man.” Dash finished her speech in a rather ineloquent fashion, but that was rather in character for her.

Applejack’s eyes softened and their sadness faded. “Thank you,” she mumbled behind a smile.

Rainbow Dash playfully nudged her arm. “Who would I do my laundry with? And Rarity would go crazy without you there to stabilize her. Your _real_ obligation is to stay here, bro.”

Applejack rolled her eyes and turned so her body was facing Rainbow Dash. “For somebody who’s hardly even my friend, you sure do care a lot about me, huh?”

Dash scoffed. “C’mon, AJ. Don’t try to tell me that we aren’t friends. I’ve spent literal hours chilling with you all semester! We know so much about each other!”

“Hmm. Well, I bet there’s a few things about me you don’t know, sugarcube.” Applejack cocked her head to the side and smiled. A real, beaming, toothy smile that made Dash’s heart melt (or, at least, the remnants of it, as it had shattered just after Applejack called her _sugarcube_ ). She leaned a little closer towards Dash.

“Well, yeah. A few, I guess.” Rainbow Dash’s smile quickly faded as she stared intently into Applejack’s bright green eyes. The two were so close they could almost--

“Do you like girls?” Rainbow Dash blurted out. It was, to Rainbow Dash, in that moment, the most critical piece of unknown information about Applejack that she did not know. 

Applejack flashed the same smile as she had before again and began to laugh. The corners of Dash’s mouth twitched up nervously in a somewhat half-smile. She wasn’t sure if this was a ‘I am a lesbian and the fact that you have to ask is funny,’ laugh or a ‘I am straight and the idea of me liking girls is comical’ laugh. However, all was soon resolved when Applejack loosely threw her hands around Rainbow Dash’s neck and leaned forward to kiss her. Dash’s eyes fluttered shut, and she found it hard to kiss back as she was smiling so much. And there, in that moment with Applejack, Dash knew in her heart that everything really would be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> bro i can't believe i'm 18 and i wrote this oh my god i'm so sorry  
> title is from Rhode Island by The Front Bottoms!!!!   
> f for fluttershy having no mentions i had no idea where she could be so i said that people's eyelids "fluttered shut" twice and those were explicitly for my girl fluttershy


End file.
